Johanna makes dream houses from trash: “I made the wall plaster from semolina and glue”

An idea for a house might pop into the mind of Finnish, Turku-based Johanna Sarva at night or during her workday. That last hour at work feels like she’s on hot coals because she’s eager to start building right away. A good-sized cardboard box can also spark a vision.

Johanna displays the finished houses at home, while the oldest ones move to basement storage. At Christmas, she puts LED lights inside them, creating a cozy glow through the windows.

Most of the houses measure about 30 × 45 centimeters. The roofs are corrugated cardboard, the windows are contact paper, and the foundations are egg cartons.

Johanna has wanted to be an artist ever since she was little. Besides making houses, she also paints fairy-tale–themed art and sculpts mushrooms from modeling compound.

Johanna, how did you get started building these houses?

I have always been interested in old buildings. In 2009, I decided to make a house out of an empty candelabra box, which turned into a white café. I “plastered” it with a mixture of semolina and glue. Since then, I’ve made about one house a year, though I made several during the pandemic!

What is the process of building a house like?

Once I start, building a house usually takes only a week or two. I take over the dining table during that time. I work on the house in the evenings after work until my eyes droop shut, and on weekends I might paint late into the night. I focus on the exterior and yard; I don’t do interiors. There’s still plenty of detailed fiddling to do.

Johanna crafts tables, benches, and house details out of bamboo trim.

Do the houses have real-life counterparts?

Of all the cardboard houses, the dearest one is quite similar to my grandmother’s place. As a child, I spent time at her rural home, which was a red wooden house with a mansard roof. There were cats and sometimes a couple of pigs. It also has something in common with Emil of Lönneberga’s home. Astrid Lindgren’s world, Pippi Longstocking, and Noisy Village fascinate me. One of the houses is a bit like Pettson and Findus’s place, complete with the characters in the yard.

What do you get out of making these houses?

Financially, this hobby costs almost nothing. It’s wonderful to turn trash into art. I rarely get frustrated because it’s so enjoyable. It also balances out my job in hospital logistics and the craziness of the world. These are my dream houses, too. I live in an apartment building, but it would be wonderful to live in an old house.

Johanna uses sand for the yards and coffee grounds as “soil” in the flowerbeds. She orders her dolls from doll artists.